John Elway Says Denver Broncos Have Been ‘Soft’

Five game losing streaks are a rare thing in Denver. But that’s exactly what has happened to the Broncos. The Super Bowl champions once removed sit at 3-6 after suffering five straight losses, drawing a wave of criticism. Broncos GM John Elway has been forced to address the team’s struggles and admits that the team “got a little bit soft.” However, Elway is confident that the Broncos still have a lot of fight in them and are capable of digging themselves out of the hole they’ve dug.

“To be dead honest with you, we got a little bit soft,” Elway said while speaking at an event on Friday. “We went 4-0 in the preseason, we started 3-1 we get a bye week and if you exhale in this league? You’re in trouble. … I think we exhaled, and it’s hard to recover from that. It will be a lesson that hopefully we all learned and can prevent it from happening in the future.”

It’s one thing to lose five straight games while being competitive but a little unlucky. But that’s not how the Broncos have been losing. They were embarrassed at home against the Giants, who still only have one win this season. Denver was then shutout by the Chargers, another lackluster team with a losing record. The last two weeks the Broncos have been blown out by the Eagles and Patriots.

“You’re going to lose football games in this league, but the way that it’s gone about, in not being competitive is probably the thing that concerns me the most,” said Elway.

Some of the criticism in Denver has been aimed at first-year head coach Vance Joseph. However, Elway has tried to shift the focus away from Joseph and show support for the young head coach.

“You know there’s going to be growing pains in the head coach, and especially the first-time head coach, as well as we’ve got a lot of youth on the staff when it comes to coordinators, too, so there’s growing pains there,” explains Elway. “Vance in my mind is doing just fine and continuing to get these guys to fight hard, and the energy is still there, so we’ll work our way through it.”

The Broncos have already made a change at quarterback, with Brock Osweiler replacing Trevor Siemian. But while Osweiler has played well at times, the change has not led to wins. In fact, things have only gotten worse the last two weeks with Osweiler starting at quarterback. However, with former 1st-round pick Paxton Lynch still working his way back from a shoulder injury, it appears that Osweiler will remain the quarterback for the foreseeable future.

At 3-6, there’s no doubt that the Broncos have their backs against the wall. But Elway is not giving up on the season and still thinks the Broncos can get back into the playoff picture one week at a time.

“I’ve gone through losing streaks before and losses and tough seasons, but the way we’ve lost these games has been the most disappointing thing,” Elway said. “But I think we have the right type of guys. They’re working hard and the desire is still there. They know the expectations and we’re not out of this thing.”